The Virtual School isn't an actual school building with its own pupils; it's the name for the group of professionals who are involved in supporting and providing education for Barnsley's looked after children.

As headteacher of the Virtual School, Liz Gibson has a vital job ensuring that the needs of Barnsley’s looked after children are met in our schools.

Liz’s responsibilities include:

Monitoring the attendance, progress and outcomes for all looked after children

Advising, challenging and supporting school staff including designated teachers for looked after children

Working with staff in Children’s Social Care to identify appropriate school placements for looked after children

Overseeing LAC pupil premium funding to further educational outcomes for all looked after children

Helping Barnsley to develop a strong corporate parent role

Looked after children include children subject to a care order or accommodated under sec 20, children and young people who have left local authority care up to the age of 18 (25 if the person has special educational needs) if adopted or subject to special guardianship or child arrangement orders.

Governors have duties towards looked after children too:

To ensure that there is a designated teacher with overall responsibility for looked after children in their school, and that the designated teacher is in a senior position and able to effect strategic change

To receive a report at least once a year on how the needs of looked after children are being met, including the impact of PP funding

To ask if their school is inclusive, for example checking that policies consider looked after children

Governors can learn more by reading the attached briefing note and by clicking on the link to the virtual school below:-

The BGA in conjuction with the local authority held a Governors Forum on Thursday 17th May 2018 at Greenacre School

The topic was "Everything you need to know about academy governance, but were afraid to ask".

The purpose of this Forum was for governors of both maintained schools and academies to network, join in activities and to talk about the successes and challenges of academisation.

There were also presentations by representatives from a number of Multi Academy Trusts.

The presentations from the evening can be downloaded from the attachments below.

As mentioned in the talk given by Alan Richards, any school wanting a National Leader of Governance to advise on converting to an academy should contact him by email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.